This invention relates to vehicle straightening and alignment structures and in particular to a work rack for use in aligning and straightening systems.
Work rack structures for correcting damaged, misaligned and misshapen vehicle frame and body parts often include a complex bridge work of vertical and horizontal beams which create obstructions that interfere with access to the vehicle and particularly to the vehicle underside. Such work racks are often associated with force applying units, power beams or the like which exert a force on a selected portion of the vehicle for correcting the damage. The force applying units are generally not easily movable or positionable relative to the work rack, making it difficult to exert a force in a desired direction. Moreover, the configuration of vehicle work racks typically requires that the vehicle be taken off of the rack, turned around and repostioned on the rack for corrections to the opposite end of the vehicle.
Applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,335 on a VEHICLE WORK RACK STRUCTURE was designed to alleviate some of these problems. The previous rack, however, is a particularly large and sturdily constructed arrangement intended for heavy-duty use and pulling severely bent frames of large, non-unibody cars and trucks. Although it can be used with the lighter unibody vehicles, it is indeed a larger and more sturdily constructed rack than necessary for these vehicles. The rack described in the '335 patent was also intended to present a central opening allowing substantially unhindered access to the underside of the vehicle. That rack, however, was generally constructed in the shape of an oval with closed front and rear ends so that the mechanic still had to crawl under a portion of the rack to gain access to the vehicle undercarriage. The present vehicle work rack provides advantages over the rack described in the '335 patent and other previously known work racks. The present work rack is relatively lightweight and mobile yet is rigidly constructed so that pulls of substantial force can be made. The rack is of a somewhat smaller scale than previous racks of applicant and is particularly designed to accommodate the new unibody "world" automobiles which do not have separate bodies and frames which require great amounts of strength to remove damage. The new rack is constructed for improved unhindered access to the underside of the vehicle and is open at both front and rear ends and with no fixed cross-bars at the working height to interfere with the mechanic's progress. The arrangement of legs and motive means for retraction and extension of the legs is arranged so that the rack moves downward to a position flat against the floor, a fully down position, so that the vehicle to be repaired can be easily driven onto the rack substantially at ground level, secured to the rack, and the rack then raised to a comfortable working height. Many previous racks are not capable of lowering to rest upon the floor surface and the vehicle must be driven on an upward incline to the rack; with over-zealous drivers there is the danger of driving the car off of the other side of rack and damaging the car further or even injuring other workers.